Almaty hosted a roundtable discussion on “Promoting sustainable development in Central Asia”.

The event under the motto “Water problems can be solved together” was opened with a welcoming speech by the Chairman of the Management Board of the Eurasian Development Bank Nikolai Podguzov, who noted that the primary goal of the current event is to unite the efforts of the countries of the region in solving problems in water and energy sector, attracting the attention of international organizations to their relevance, as well as enhancing practical cooperation.

Representatives of IFAS, the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC), FAO, the World Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and other international structures also participated in the roundtable discussion.

The moderator, Head of the EDB Center for Infrastructure and Industrial Research Arman Ahunbaev, and the speakers focused on issues of supporting investment projects in the public-private partnership format. In particular, two cases were considered – the “Gerdane” project and the “Improvement of water resources in Southern Karakalpakstan” project.

A video was shown about modern irrigation systems and digital technologies, in particular, various methods of irrigating land, laser planning, and others.

World Bank's Regional Director for the Central Asia region Tatiana Proskuryakova, who joined the event online, spoke about the bank’s financing of projects to modernize water resource management systems in Karakalpakstan and the Fergana Valley and also announced the development of the CAWEP-4 program (together with the EU, Switzerland, UK, as well as USAID), which will cover water and energy issues, climate change and nexus approaches. She also called for strengthening regional dialogue and coordinating research efforts.

A representative of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) informed about the implementation of 12 projects worth $610 million in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, and Tajikistan, adding that in the future, it is planned to expand both the amount of investments and the number of countries where these projects will be implemented. The CAREC cooperation program and the CAREC-2030 strategy were also presented.

Summing up the results of the event, Mr. Podguzov proposed holding such an event regularly to discuss the progress of implementation of the discussed issues, review the results achieved, and analyze them.

Alpomish Mashrabkhanov, UzA

Almaty, Kazakhstan